What Enters Through the Open Heart: Poetry Book Launch
with Christine Valters Paintner and Simon de Voil
Monday, October 19, 2026
5-6pm Ireland
12-1pm Eastern
9-10am Pacific
Perfection is a harsh companion
who holds a wide mirror to your flaws.
Better to fall in love with broken things,
– excerpted from “Broken Things” by Christine Valters Paintner
Program Description
Join us to celebrate the publication of Christine Valters Paintner’s newest collection of poetry, What Enters Through the Open Heart: Poems (Monkfish Publishing).
During this free hour-long event, Christine will read some of her poems and Simon will offer the gift of music.
There will also be a chance to win a signed copy of the book. The session will be recorded, so please register even if you aren’t free at that time.
Christine Paintner’s newest collection, What Enters Through the Open Heart, is a book of deep listening—to the aching body, the sorrowing heart, the breathing earth, and the luminous hum of the sacred threaded through the daily ordinary. These poems turn illness into altar, grief into teacher, and attention itself into prayer, offering a fierce, tender theology of presence.
There is so much that can close our hearts off to the world. Choosing to live in an open-hearted way in the midst of illness and grief is a path of courage.
Life is both tender and fragile, and at times profoundly enduring. This collection of poems centers on the former but often touches on the latter, revealing how this fleeting and frail quality of so many of our experiences, often shows the way toward what is most deeply true.
What is it about the mysterious alchemy of pain mixed with faith that, if embraced—however reluctantly—often produces profound beauty? It's a question worth asking Paintner because, in What Enters Through the Open Heart, she has achieved it. Excavating a topic which might easily pull usdown, she instead gives us wings.
What Enters through the Open Heart is a collection of poems about what feels fragile, fleeting, and ephemeral in life. Christine writes about her experience of chronic illness, grief, loss, nature’s consolation, and she brings to life some of the saints who had kinship with creatures and experienced illness as well. Ultimately it is a collection about what it means to live with an open heart in the midst of pain and vulnerability.
We will turn on closed captioning during the live Zoom session (which you are able to turn off in your settings if you find distracting) as well as provide a video recording with closed captioning available and a text transcript of the session within 24 hours. You will be sent a notification when this is ready to view.
You have lifetime access to all online programs.
What Enters Through the Open Heart is an astonishing new poetry collection by Christine Valters Paintner. Its exquisite, intimate, and courageous poems make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, creating a portal into the communal, liminal vulnerability we routinely call “life.”
Your Guide for the Journey
Christine Valters Paintner
Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE is the online Abbess and director of AbbeyoftheArts.com, a virtual monastery exploring contemplative practice, creative expression, and ways to nourish an earth-cherishing consciousness. She is a spiritual director, teacher, pilgrimage guide, Benedictine oblate, and author of numerous books on spirituality and the arts. Her deepest belief is that the earth is the original monastery–a wisdom guide and mentor in living a soulful and vibrant life. Visit the “About Christine” page for more information.
Simon de Voil
Reverend Simon Ruth de Voil is an ordained interfaith-interspiritual minister, sacred musician, spiritual counsellor, and chaplain. His sacred work—both musical and interpersonal—explores themes of the inner landscape of the soul, the enchantment of the natural world, and the healing power of spiritual practice. As a chaplain and counsellor, Simon helps individuals and groups connect sacred presence with everyday life. He’s delighted to be called a stay at home monk and a “trans grandpa” to queer and trans youth. SimondeVoil.com
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